
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN"
  "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">

<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
  <head>
    <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" />
    <title>35.2. pwd — The password database &#8212; Python 3.6.3 documentation</title>
    <link rel="stylesheet" href="../_static/pydoctheme.css" type="text/css" />
    <link rel="stylesheet" href="../_static/pygments.css" type="text/css" />
    <script type="text/javascript">
      var DOCUMENTATION_OPTIONS = {
        URL_ROOT:    '../',
        VERSION:     '3.6.3',
        COLLAPSE_INDEX: false,
        FILE_SUFFIX: '.html',
        HAS_SOURCE:  true,
        SOURCELINK_SUFFIX: '.txt'
      };
    </script>
    <script type="text/javascript" src="../_static/jquery.js"></script>
    <script type="text/javascript" src="../_static/underscore.js"></script>
    <script type="text/javascript" src="../_static/doctools.js"></script>
    <script type="text/javascript" src="../_static/sidebar.js"></script>
    <link rel="search" type="application/opensearchdescription+xml"
          title="Search within Python 3.6.3 documentation"
          href="../_static/opensearch.xml"/>
    <link rel="author" title="About these documents" href="../about.html" />
    <link rel="index" title="Index" href="../genindex.html" />
    <link rel="search" title="Search" href="../search.html" />
    <link rel="copyright" title="Copyright" href="../copyright.html" />
    <link rel="next" title="35.3. spwd — The shadow password database" href="spwd.html" />
    <link rel="prev" title="35.1. posix — The most common POSIX system calls" href="posix.html" />
    <link rel="shortcut icon" type="image/png" href="../_static/py.png" />
    <link rel="canonical" href="https://docs.python.org/3/library/pwd.html" />
    
    <script type="text/javascript" src="../_static/copybutton.js"></script>
    <script type="text/javascript" src="../_static/switchers.js"></script>
    
    
 

  </head>
  <body>  
    <div class="related" role="navigation" aria-label="related navigation">
      <h3>Navigation</h3>
      <ul>
        <li class="right" style="margin-right: 10px">
          <a href="../genindex.html" title="General Index"
             accesskey="I">index</a></li>
        <li class="right" >
          <a href="../py-modindex.html" title="Python Module Index"
             >modules</a> |</li>
        <li class="right" >
          <a href="spwd.html" title="35.3. spwd — The shadow password database"
             accesskey="N">next</a> |</li>
        <li class="right" >
          <a href="posix.html" title="35.1. posix — The most common POSIX system calls"
             accesskey="P">previous</a> |</li>
        <li><img src="../_static/py.png" alt=""
                 style="vertical-align: middle; margin-top: -1px"/></li>
        <li><a href="https://www.python.org/">Python</a> &#187;</li>
        <li>
          <span class="language_switcher_placeholder">en</span>
          <span class="version_switcher_placeholder">3.6.3</span>
          <a href="../index.html">Documentation </a> &#187;
        </li>

          <li class="nav-item nav-item-1"><a href="index.html" >The Python Standard Library</a> &#187;</li>
          <li class="nav-item nav-item-2"><a href="unix.html" accesskey="U">35. Unix Specific Services</a> &#187;</li>
    <li class="right">
        

    <div class="inline-search" style="display: none" role="search">
        <form class="inline-search" action="../search.html" method="get">
          <input placeholder="Quick search" type="text" name="q" />
          <input type="submit" value="Go" />
          <input type="hidden" name="check_keywords" value="yes" />
          <input type="hidden" name="area" value="default" />
        </form>
    </div>
    <script type="text/javascript">$('.inline-search').show(0);</script>
         |
    </li>

      </ul>
    </div>    

    <div class="document">
      <div class="documentwrapper">
        <div class="bodywrapper">
          <div class="body" role="main">
            
  <div class="section" id="module-pwd">
<span id="pwd-the-password-database"></span><h1>35.2. <a class="reference internal" href="#module-pwd" title="pwd: The password database (getpwnam() and friends). (Unix)"><code class="xref py py-mod docutils literal"><span class="pre">pwd</span></code></a> — The password database<a class="headerlink" href="#module-pwd" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h1>
<hr class="docutils" />
<p>This module provides access to the Unix user account and password database.  It
is available on all Unix versions.</p>
<p>Password database entries are reported as a tuple-like object, whose attributes
correspond to the members of the <code class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">passwd</span></code> structure (Attribute field below,
see <code class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">&lt;pwd.h&gt;</span></code>):</p>
<table border="1" class="docutils">
<colgroup>
<col width="14%" />
<col width="29%" />
<col width="57%" />
</colgroup>
<thead valign="bottom">
<tr class="row-odd"><th class="head">Index</th>
<th class="head">Attribute</th>
<th class="head">Meaning</th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody valign="top">
<tr class="row-even"><td>0</td>
<td><code class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">pw_name</span></code></td>
<td>Login name</td>
</tr>
<tr class="row-odd"><td>1</td>
<td><code class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">pw_passwd</span></code></td>
<td>Optional encrypted password</td>
</tr>
<tr class="row-even"><td>2</td>
<td><code class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">pw_uid</span></code></td>
<td>Numerical user ID</td>
</tr>
<tr class="row-odd"><td>3</td>
<td><code class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">pw_gid</span></code></td>
<td>Numerical group ID</td>
</tr>
<tr class="row-even"><td>4</td>
<td><code class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">pw_gecos</span></code></td>
<td>User name or comment field</td>
</tr>
<tr class="row-odd"><td>5</td>
<td><code class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">pw_dir</span></code></td>
<td>User home directory</td>
</tr>
<tr class="row-even"><td>6</td>
<td><code class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">pw_shell</span></code></td>
<td>User command interpreter</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p>The uid and gid items are integers, all others are strings. <a class="reference internal" href="exceptions.html#KeyError" title="KeyError"><code class="xref py py-exc docutils literal"><span class="pre">KeyError</span></code></a> is
raised if the entry asked for cannot be found.</p>
<div class="admonition note">
<p class="first admonition-title">Note</p>
<p class="last" id="index-0">In traditional Unix the field <code class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">pw_passwd</span></code> usually contains a password
encrypted with a DES derived algorithm (see module <a class="reference internal" href="crypt.html#module-crypt" title="crypt: The crypt() function used to check Unix passwords. (Unix)"><code class="xref py py-mod docutils literal"><span class="pre">crypt</span></code></a>).  However most
modern unices  use a so-called <em>shadow password</em> system.  On those unices the
<em>pw_passwd</em> field only contains an asterisk (<code class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">'*'</span></code>) or the  letter <code class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">'x'</span></code>
where the encrypted password is stored in a file <code class="file docutils literal"><span class="pre">/etc/shadow</span></code> which is
not world readable.  Whether the <em>pw_passwd</em> field contains anything useful is
system-dependent.  If available, the <a class="reference internal" href="spwd.html#module-spwd" title="spwd: The shadow password database (getspnam() and friends). (Unix)"><code class="xref py py-mod docutils literal"><span class="pre">spwd</span></code></a> module should be used where
access to the encrypted password is required.</p>
</div>
<p>It defines the following items:</p>
<dl class="function">
<dt id="pwd.getpwuid">
<code class="descclassname">pwd.</code><code class="descname">getpwuid</code><span class="sig-paren">(</span><em>uid</em><span class="sig-paren">)</span><a class="headerlink" href="#pwd.getpwuid" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt>
<dd><p>Return the password database entry for the given numeric user ID.</p>
</dd></dl>

<dl class="function">
<dt id="pwd.getpwnam">
<code class="descclassname">pwd.</code><code class="descname">getpwnam</code><span class="sig-paren">(</span><em>name</em><span class="sig-paren">)</span><a class="headerlink" href="#pwd.getpwnam" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt>
<dd><p>Return the password database entry for the given user name.</p>
</dd></dl>

<dl class="function">
<dt id="pwd.getpwall">
<code class="descclassname">pwd.</code><code class="descname">getpwall</code><span class="sig-paren">(</span><span class="sig-paren">)</span><a class="headerlink" href="#pwd.getpwall" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt>
<dd><p>Return a list of all available password database entries, in arbitrary order.</p>
</dd></dl>

<div class="admonition seealso">
<p class="first admonition-title">See also</p>
<dl class="last docutils">
<dt>Module <a class="reference internal" href="grp.html#module-grp" title="grp: The group database (getgrnam() and friends). (Unix)"><code class="xref py py-mod docutils literal"><span class="pre">grp</span></code></a></dt>
<dd>An interface to the group database, similar to this.</dd>
<dt>Module <a class="reference internal" href="spwd.html#module-spwd" title="spwd: The shadow password database (getspnam() and friends). (Unix)"><code class="xref py py-mod docutils literal"><span class="pre">spwd</span></code></a></dt>
<dd>An interface to the shadow password database, similar to this.</dd>
</dl>
</div>
</div>


          </div>
        </div>
      </div>
      <div class="sphinxsidebar" role="navigation" aria-label="main navigation">
        <div class="sphinxsidebarwrapper">
  <h4>Previous topic</h4>
  <p class="topless"><a href="posix.html"
                        title="previous chapter">35.1. <code class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">posix</span></code> — The most common POSIX system calls</a></p>
  <h4>Next topic</h4>
  <p class="topless"><a href="spwd.html"
                        title="next chapter">35.3. <code class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">spwd</span></code> — The shadow password database</a></p>
  <div role="note" aria-label="source link">
    <h3>This Page</h3>
    <ul class="this-page-menu">
      <li><a href="../bugs.html">Report a Bug</a></li>
      <li>
        <a href="https://github.com/python/cpython/blob/3.6/Doc/library/pwd.rst"
            rel="nofollow">Show Source
        </a>
      </li>
    </ul>
  </div>
        </div>
      </div>
      <div class="clearer"></div>
    </div>  
    <div class="related" role="navigation" aria-label="related navigation">
      <h3>Navigation</h3>
      <ul>
        <li class="right" style="margin-right: 10px">
          <a href="../genindex.html" title="General Index"
             >index</a></li>
        <li class="right" >
          <a href="../py-modindex.html" title="Python Module Index"
             >modules</a> |</li>
        <li class="right" >
          <a href="spwd.html" title="35.3. spwd — The shadow password database"
             >next</a> |</li>
        <li class="right" >
          <a href="posix.html" title="35.1. posix — The most common POSIX system calls"
             >previous</a> |</li>
        <li><img src="../_static/py.png" alt=""
                 style="vertical-align: middle; margin-top: -1px"/></li>
        <li><a href="https://www.python.org/">Python</a> &#187;</li>
        <li>
          <span class="language_switcher_placeholder">en</span>
          <span class="version_switcher_placeholder">3.6.3</span>
          <a href="../index.html">Documentation </a> &#187;
        </li>

          <li class="nav-item nav-item-1"><a href="index.html" >The Python Standard Library</a> &#187;</li>
          <li class="nav-item nav-item-2"><a href="unix.html" >35. Unix Specific Services</a> &#187;</li>
    <li class="right">
        

    <div class="inline-search" style="display: none" role="search">
        <form class="inline-search" action="../search.html" method="get">
          <input placeholder="Quick search" type="text" name="q" />
          <input type="submit" value="Go" />
          <input type="hidden" name="check_keywords" value="yes" />
          <input type="hidden" name="area" value="default" />
        </form>
    </div>
    <script type="text/javascript">$('.inline-search').show(0);</script>
         |
    </li>

      </ul>
    </div>  
    <div class="footer">
    &copy; <a href="../copyright.html">Copyright</a> 2001-2017, Python Software Foundation.
    <br />
    The Python Software Foundation is a non-profit corporation.
    <a href="https://www.python.org/psf/donations/">Please donate.</a>
    <br />
    Last updated on Oct 14, 2017.
    <a href="../bugs.html">Found a bug</a>?
    <br />
    Created using <a href="http://sphinx.pocoo.org/">Sphinx</a> 1.6.4.
    </div>

  </body>
</html>